ZAM Poll Asks for Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV

How do you feel about your FFXIV experience so far? Let us know!

Happy Friday everyone! We hope those of you with the Final Fantasy XIV Collector's Edition get to enjoy some quality game time this weekend. On a similar note, we'd like to know your thoughts on your FFXIV experience so far. We've posted a poll asking that very question on ZAM.com, so let your anonymous voice be heard!

Has Final Fantasy XIV exceeded your expectations, or is it exactly what you expected? Are you disappointed? Are you waiting until the standard edition comes out on Sept. 30 to start playing the game, or are you still on the fence? Head over to ZAM.com and let us know!

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ZAM Poll Asks for Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV
# Sep 27 2010 at 2:08 PM Rating: Decent
1) I hate the lack of an auction house. Without it, makes it hard to determine an individual player is ripping you off with their offerings.

2) Gathering - I get that the Aim/Strike style mini-game discourages botting, but at the same time it also makes the gathering process really tedious. No matter how cool/neat some of us find it now, do you really want to have to do it a few months down the road? At the very least, they could get rid of the 1st-click/Aim portion of the mini-game. With all the UI-driven delay/lag, that would help speed things up a little...

3) Would be nice if you had a crafting journal that stores recipes for things you successfully crafted or learned through a leve.

4) XP cap - I would like to know how much time I have remaining on a class before XP gain is reduced/eliminated. Also, not sure how this is calculated. If you log on and just stand or walk around for 8 hours doing nothing, does that count? Given all the walking you do in this game, that would be kind of lame ;)

5) Would be nice if there was an NPC in town (like all standard members of the city watch equivalent) that could tell you where vendors are located or how to get to another town.

6) They need to make multiple instances of the regions (i.e. Bearded Rock-1, Bearded Rock-2, etc) with an option to change your instance number so you can find your buddies. That would really help with reducing lag/crowding.

7) Dying - it's annoying to have to go into your menu to Return when you die. Can't they just make it an automatic pop-up that you can select Yes/No/Wait to?

8) Keyboard shortcuts - it would be nice to be able to assign shortcuts so I can press I to get into my Inventory instead of having to go into the Menu and then select Inventory. After all, this is a PC game...

9) Gladiators should start out with some kind of starter shield.

10) Would be nice if you could toggle auto-attack for your rank 1 base attack.

11) Elevation needs work. If I want to fall down somewhere, I should be able to (and take damage if it is a long drop). I don't mind not being able to jump.
Why it really does need an auction house
# Sep 27 2010 at 9:26 AM Rating: Decent
Honestly the bazaar is an ok idea but people aren't practical about it. Jumping into the bazaar right now produces a few hundred retainers, each of which has random stuff.

Some people call their retainers "Armorguy" or w/e, but most are just "sexychick" or "bobbafetts" etc, it's extremely tedious to search through everyone. Not only do retainer locations change, but what they are selling does as well.

My friend and I spent 30 minutes trying to find a shield on one of the retainers last night.

Making it unique to a degree is ok, but try searching that long every time you need something and it's going to get tedious. fast. (less than a few days fast)

There are quite a few menus/interfaces that have absolutely no explanation and you find yourself clicking random buttons to stumble through. I've noticed quite a few bugs, that honestly I'm just surprised got past beta, once again I'll reiterate release feels a little premature.

The action bars not saving when I switch weapons sometimes drives me crazy, also you can't move block off of your bar as a gladiator, meaning it goes to the first open slot. So you have to remove skills up to the slot you want, switch to a different class, then switch back and it will shift. Little things like this add up and there are dozens of them.



All that being said I'm actually getting into the game even more now, we'll see how long I can last.
This is what it is not
# Sep 26 2010 at 9:46 PM Rating: Decent
Unfortunately, this is not the best of the best. But at the same time, when you have mastered FFXIV, you can at least take yourself out of the novice group for MMO's. It's not WoW, because it is not easy to play. That may be a good or bad factor, depending on the your focus. Why it takes 4 clicks at least to create anything is beyond me. Lag is an issue with staring at an empty space waiting for an NPC for at least 30 seconds is boring. Quest are good, but finding where to get them is bad. Overall, I would like to see SE fix the flow so it can be either macroed, or easier to flow through the game.
Mixed bag
# Sep 26 2010 at 5:41 PM Rating: Good
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259 posts
Playing now for two days it slowly grows on me.

But, how could S-E make so infuriating mistakes:

- The payment system! They can't be serious! Right? Even the PlayOnline stuff is decent compared to that.

- FFXI had one of the best auction houses I've experienced in a game. It's superior to the WOW one in my not so humble opinion. How could they abolish that?

- I'm okay with no jumping. I hated the constant hopping of human paladins in Ironforge. Thank god FFXIV didn't give in. But on the other hand, please, please make terrain such that you can move without constantly snagging on small curb stones in Ul'dah or Limsa Lominsa. That's just not cool either.

There are many more things that could make the experience go sour, but I was determined to get through that, hoping that S-E will at least address some.

Anyway I love how you can switch jobs on the fly. See a good mining point? Pull out your pickaxe and start mining! (and it does not break! well, at least not right away...) See a corroded coblyn over there that cons blue? Whip out your lance and slash away! That's great! I love it.

The cut scenes? Gorgeous! I love how they play out. I'm eager to learn more of the story. I tried out all three starter zones just for the stories alone. Had to delete chars because of that, but that's okay, becasue I was trying out stuff, getting a feel for it.

Right now, I'm hopeful there's a resolution for the most glaring defects. I'm a bit worried though, how the servers will stomach the onslaught of the regular edition buyers. Right now some servers are full just from the CE buyers. Hmm.. we'll see.

-Arnulf
Learning curve...
# Sep 25 2010 at 7:09 PM Rating: Default
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599 posts
It is not perfect. I agree with most of what has been said previously.

I would mention that the learning curve for this game is probably about 3 months... lol

Between all of the different disciplines, abilities, macros, bazaar options, chat options, etc... it takes awhile to get it all under your belt.

I'm not so heart broken about the lack of an AH system. I tend to agree with SE. Not having an AH opens the door for creativity of craftsmen trying to find sales for their wares. I also opens the doors for skilled craftsmen or synthesis linkshells to become a sought after commodity. Anyway, I haven't experienced too much trouble finding what I need... yet. People in the early release stand to make a significant amount of money if they prepare diligently for the incoming hordes to follow on Wednesday.

Combat is fun! It isn't FFXI combat. It is more challenging then combat in some other MMOs. The Battle Regimen system is a little difficult to manage and at low levels not very worthwhile because their aren't enough abilities but I think at the higher levels it will be interesting to explore the options. It has the elements of teamwork that I liked in FFXI and just like skillchains requires some learning time to figure out. I like the fact that you can toggle AOE abilities on your spells. Between Thaumaturge and a Conjurer you could take down large groups of monsters easily or adapt to tank style party system.

Some guildleves are incredibly challenging. There are mostly combat tutorial leves at the beginning with some escort quests as part of the storyline. It is nice that you don't have to provide materials for crafting leves. Advancement is much easier and enjoyable. Crystals are definitely going to be a hot commodity.

I agree that the visuals are stunning. I also admit that I purchased a new $300 graphics card just to be able to run the game. The world not only beautiful it is also huge! There is no lack of dungeons to explore or places to see. You could easily spend a week traveling to every corner of the map.

The chat interface is a little troubling. It isn't easy to reply. In FFXI I just hit <alt>+R and it would auto reply. In FFXIV you have to type their name at least once before you can press <space><ctrl>+R and reply. I agree with the earlier comment that the chat box doesn't hold enough characters. You run out of space too fast.

I would recommend if you do not have one getting a USB controller. It makes the game menus and landscape much easier to explore. It is possible to do so using a keyboard but I would think twice.

In the hours I've played since release I have not regreted a penny of all the money I spent to explore Eorzea. 8.7/10
____________________________
"The next time you have the urge to stab me in the back have the guts to do it to my face." - Malcolm Reynolds
Disappointed, things lacking.
# Sep 25 2010 at 5:11 AM Rating: Good
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246 posts
Content is limited.

Chat functionality is poor and the amount of characters that can be typed is too limited, espeically when a character's name takes up half the space.

I thought players were supposed to be able to give "nicknames" to their friends to make sending /tells more convenient.

The search function for parties is difficult to use and I had a friend right next to me that the system would not even find.

Inventory is not sortable.

Only one retainer available?

Bazaars limited to 10 spots?

No Auction House or an ability to search bazaars.

Combat is weak and boring.
Mob placement/concentration is poor.
Partying is not efficient.
No NM's or "bosses" for players to attempt.
Mobs are either far too difficult or far too easy and no skillpoints are awarded.

Skillpoints seem to increase by the more damage a person takes and not dependent on mob level.

Crafting is much more simple and easy, but quality gain has significantly reduced. On some jobs Standard and Rapid animations look reversed.

Fishing in zones slightly above level requires guessing the fish's location correctly on the first try. By the second try the entire stamina is depleted.

Regional "fieldcraft" levequests for fishing significantly dropped the skill points gained for levequests involving "investigate X number of fishing spots". Whereas the catch X amount of fish levequests are significantly higher. Equipment rewards have disappeared for fishing levequests also?

Anima and Guardian's Favor regeneration is far too slow.
Disappointed, things lacking.
# Sep 25 2010 at 12:35 PM Rating: Good
can't stand:
that there is no way to search for people.
there's no way to see your party members on the large map.
you get errors that say you can't engage a target when the only people attacking it are in your party.
the horrid lagging (HORRID and i have a brand new computer).
things i like:
the wonderful graphics.
the potential for a grand game
Great
# Sep 25 2010 at 1:24 AM Rating: Good
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80 posts
Been at it for a few days now and sine open beta the biggest improvement I found was the latency on the UI. Even though it's still a bit laggy, it's much improved on the release.

The presentation is extraordinary to say the least. Everything is so detailed and so real besides the fact that it's an RPG. The feeling of FFXI is still there with movement being done on the keyboard and having to wait for people to show up on the screen.

I'm a little sad to see the exp chain mechanic go cause of the fatigue system I guess.

Combat is almost the same as it was in FFXI I think, you can still setup your macros with CTRL and ALT. I could say it's a bit improved cause in FFXI you had a menu to scroll through, now they give you an action bar, on top of the CTRL and ALT macros.

Not sure what's up with the chat box, seems a bit small. I actually haven't even tried to see if you could change the settings on the chat display besides the filters. So maybe you can change that? I dunno.

Hopefully they'll put in an AH system or at least a search for the markets, cause having to teleport to each market and check every bazaar is a pain. Unless they have this search and I'm retarded ;x

Solo system to me is a bonus I suppose, I woulda still loved it if it were like FFXI and you get into parties and grind it out for hours. Obviously I know most people specially the WoW players would hate this.

I just can't wait till end game because the fatigue system, armoury system and all is going to make it very interesting.
My opinion
# Sep 24 2010 at 4:54 PM Rating: Decent
Being that it's only two days after the early release I don't know that I can really comment on the game as a whole. Currently I have my physical level up to 10 and I have a couple of classes leveled up.

The Leve system is nice. There's definitely something to be said about being able to log on for forty-five minutes to an hour and actually get something done. I personally tend to play hours at a time, but friends of mine that couldn't play FFXI because of the amount of time required to actually achieve anything can now log on and play for an hour.

The graphics on FFXIV are much better than those of FFXI.

The game play is kind of slow. There is a more than noticable time lapse between command imput and command execution. Hopefully this is something that can be addressed in an update sometime soon. Also, it's not uncommon (for me anyway) to initiate an attack on a mob and then receive a message saying that the mob is already engaged. As it stands, to overcome this problem, I try to have an exit strategy before I initiate an attack. Otherwise, the only option is to stand there and let the mob attack you while you continue to receive that message that it's already engaged.

One thing that I would really like to make clear is that this game is NOT Final Fantasy 11! In the last three days I have seen so many people complaining about how different this game is from FFXI. So be warned, if you are expecting FFXI you WILL be disappointed!

The game has several bugs that need to be tended to and hopefully will be tended to in upcoming updates. However, none of these things are bad enough to make me want to stop playing so far.

As of right now there is no AH. However, being that I'm barely into the game, I can't really comment about how I feel about this so far. Honestly, I've yet to have a reason to really need an AH in any way. Also, (as far as my exploring has taken me) there is no MH either. Again, I can't really comment on how I feel about this.

Some of the in game commands are a bit demanding. Basically, you have to open up the main menu to access pretty much everything. This wouldn't be too bad except, as I stated above, there is a delay between unput and execution. So, the more steps it takes to input a command, the more noticable this delay is.

Over all I would say that I'm pleased witht the game so far. If you are someone who is thinking about buying the game but aren't sure, I would say that as long as you are willing to give SE a little bit of time to work out some minor bugs in the game then it's worth giving a try.
Horrible
# Sep 24 2010 at 4:33 PM Rating: Decent
28 posts
For a game that required so much hardware, it delivers so little, no AH, no pvp, hell you can't even jump. You have a few quests you can do every 2 days, and if you try to grind you get less and less exp. I feel they made a game that makes me not want to play.
Horrible
# Sep 24 2010 at 9:40 PM Rating: Decent
aldenpark wrote:
For a game that required so much hardware, it delivers so little, no AH, no pvp, hell you can't even jump. You have a few quests you can do every 2 days, and if you try to grind you get less and less exp. I feel they made a game that makes me not want to play.


no AH... read the info about that...
no pvp... read the info about taht...
no jump.... wayne? do u need jump? for waht? look at FFXI, it runs 7 years... without jump.

and about grind, and u getting less and less EXP.. read the info about taht.. or watch this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abE09-tqhoM
first thoughts
# Sep 24 2010 at 2:12 PM Rating: Good
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94 posts
I have only had 5 or 6 hours of play time so far, but I will give my impressions from what I have seen.

LIKES:

*Graphics - truly amazing, the world looks like and actual place. The benchmark is very misleading imo, I had pretty high settings and had a low benchmark score.

*Combat - So far its fun. The lack of an auto attack is different, but I like the choice.

*Quests - The starting quest is nice with the cut scenes and are entertaining.

*Solo-friendly - Great improvement from XI to be able to solo.

DISLIKES:

*No AH - I kind of understand why SE chose not to have one, but it needs to be there. Simple fix that I hope they change soon.

*Inspecting others - Its a little rediculous that I need to go into the menu and click inspect, I should be able to just right click and pick my options. Also a mousover of class/level would be great.

*Retainers - This sort of goes along with having no AH, but why can I only put ~10 items into my retainer? I should be able to put a whole lot more.

*Throwing rocks - I picked Mining as my first class. I walk around with a metal pick that breaks ricks but I have to throw rocks at enemies? Seriously, let DoL people attack with their axes and picks or whatever.

Those are the main things off the top of my head. So far i really like the game, but it does need some changes.
thoughts
# Sep 24 2010 at 1:42 PM Rating: Good
I really liked the FFXI world, but the gameplay was lacking at release, more specifically the combat system.

Things I like
Graphics - gorgeous, feels like I'm playing Oblivion but other people can be in the game with me
Combat - has improved 10 fold over original ffxi which was just autoattack and try to get in a skillchain
Single Player - it's nice to not have to get a 5 man group to hit 11
Crafting - while I've just started...it's kind of cool, though a bit expensive.

Things I don't really like (subject to change)
Quests - There's the main quests...and then levequests, but levequests are just kill x or craft x, should be more variety to zone stuff, most of the areas are just some geography with monsters filled in, wish there was more to interact with.
Music - So far it's been a little bland imo, I remember ffxi early music at least being more catchy, peppy, atmospheric etc.

Gear - Besides being able to buy the starting weapon of each class there's almost nothing you can get for quite some time as far as gear..wish gear would drop, even if it wasn't very good.. I might be level 20 before I stop using my level 1 weapon, I'd like a bit more easily-accesible gear for new players.

Convenience stuff - I don't want this to be WoW, but stuff like an auction house would be nice, also where did player housing go? :( Final Fantasy XI had both, and I really liked the housing, I've heard the a.h. at least will be out at a later date, which begs the question, why wasn't this stuff ready at release? It feels like this game was released too soon, for me it hasn't really been buggy or anything, but it just feels like it lacks content.

Classes - Really there are the 5 war classes and 2 mage classes, not sure why they even call the professions classes but it's a bit misleading. It doesn't seem like there are enough classes right now.








ZAM Poll Asks for Thoughts on Final Fantasy XIV
# Sep 24 2010 at 12:46 PM Rating: Decent
As a causal user I love the single player aspect. I really enjoy the game and its everything i wanted it to be. Its really easy to say I love it but its easy to see the things driving me nuts.

1) No AH ---hate this can't search for items just simply need it. (Dont be different from wow just to be different...poor design choice) How am I supposed to know what is paying best for the jobs I am doing and what pays well that I would enjoy..can't really figure this out without a AH..

2) Needed Camera lock on for travel (hotkey). I just want to not have to use my mouse to look around when traveling. (Easy fix)

3) The mission cards are great however cool down even for me as a causal user is way to high...a few days great 48 hours way to short.
(prolly will be adjusted) (I am on for about two hours a day)
I grabbed a some missions and then figured out i didnt want to do some..can't drop them and get new ones have to wait for cool down? I am still figuring this out.Could just be me.

4) Combat seems odd have not figured it out just yet. Old system from 11 was perfect but new one..I think its the interface is just hard to read.Seems like I am lost to wht is going on alot
My Combat example that is currently taking place
tab to enemy --->hotkey 1 ...then enter..then it just gets odd visually.

Hope this helps and see what people think..i could just be a tard noob.
But suggestions are always welcome as well.

Jax


Edited, Sep 24th 2010 2:52pm by joshjoneswol
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